There was a lot ill-informed commentary on Texas Senate Invoice 8, the Heartbeat Act, that I really feel compelled to elucidate its provisions and defend its logic. I’m the creator of the invoice, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed in Could.
The legislation doesn’t ban abortions after six weeks. It requires {that a} doctor performing an abortion first test for a fetal heartbeat. If there’s a heartbeat, the doctor could not abort the kid. When a doctor performs an abortion with out checking for a heartbeat, or finds a heartbeat and performs the abortion anyway, he has carried out an unlawful abortion.